Less is more. That may be the mantra of the winning team in the 2025 KPMG Senior School Investment Challenge.

One of the Warwick Academy teams, Enterprise Explorers, topped the charts after placing the fewest number of trades out of the 18 teams from eight schools.

In its 20th year, the Investment Challenge promotes financial literacy and fosters future leaders through a unique capital markets competition for senior school students.

Launched in 2005, student teams are given $100,000 in virtual funds to invest in the capital markets over six months, learning practical skills in financial analysis, decision-making and teamwork.

KPMG said the challenge is a cornerstone of their ongoing commitment to education and youth development.

During the recent awards ceremony, Crystal Caesar, the Minister of Education, agreed, congratulating all the students for their commitment over the six months.

She said: “Our financial services sector remains a pillar of our economy, for which we now have a Signature Learning Programme in our schools, and this longstanding partnership with the KPMG team of mentors and organisers provides young people with real world exposure to finance and investment.”

The schools of the top three teams earn real cash prizes of $10,000 (WA’s team, Enterprise Explorers), $6,000 (Somersfield Academy’s team Money Raiders), and $4,000 (Saltus Grammar School’s The Saints).

The money is to support educational initiatives, and the winning school from Warwick has already determined their spending priorities.

Matt Mitchell, the education institution’s head of business, economics and computing, said: “A portion of the funds will go towards the students’ prom; further portions will go towards the student bursary to help financially challenged students continue to attend Warwick Academy; (some will go) towards a lunch for the participating teams; and, (some will go) towards purchasing resources to aid student learning and knowledge in the business, economics and computing department.”

The Enterprise Explorers consisted of Year 12 students Oliver Soares (captain), Cameron Addiscott, Alaysia Glasford, Serena Goonewardene, Micah Looby, Zion Mills, Cody Moniz, Elias Reece, Jayden Smith and Selah Wilson.

Mr Mitchell said: “Many teams struggled to achieve a positive return on their investment, with recent trading policies being implemented by the United States government impacting global markets.

“The Enterprise Explorers’ strategy of holding off investing in the markets paid off, capitalising on less exposure to the economic uncertainty surrounding tariffs and protectionist policies affecting global trade.”

They were one of two teams that made only 15 trades during the entire six months, while most entered the market many times more. Three teams traded at least 100 times in an attempt to stem losses. They were also one of just two teams to make money.

Each team consisted of ten students and had a fictitious $100,000 dollars to invest in various stock exchanges around the world.

Mr Mitchell added: “The digital platform StockTrak allowed students to purchase shares in real time and experience both the elation of their portfolio rising in value, and the heartbreak of their share prices crashing.

Specific rules restricted students’ abilities to invest all their funds in just a few companies, or to allow them to day trade, purchase exchange-traded funds or short stocks.

“Instead, the aim of the challenge was for students to learn about analysing market data and making longer-term investments to build up a profitable portfolio of securities.”